Academy honors Poulin as Living Legend’

Thursday

Oct 11, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By Ellen W. ToddSanford News Writer

SPRINGVALE — On Thursday, Oct. 11, Springvale native Muriel Poulin will be honored by the American Academy of Nursing as a “Living Legend” in recognition of her contributions to the nursing profession and to society.Poulin is one of just four “nurse leaders” to be recognized as Living Legends at the Academy’s 39th Annual Conference and Meeting, held this week in Washington, D.C.Poulin, who officially retired 22 years ago, is a professor emeritus at Boston University, where she directed the graduate program in nursing for almost two decades. Poulin had a long and interesting professional career in nursing — a career which took her to Syria, where she was the director of nursing at Damascus General Hospital. The hospital had been under construction for about 30 years, Poulin said, in an interview this week. It still had not been completed when she arrived in 1954. Four days after she arrived in Damascus, Poulin said she witnessed a “coup d’état,” or overthrow of the government, with rebels running through the streets and the sound of gunfire. She said there were such five coups in Syria that year. “We had five ministers of health in one year,” she recalled. The experience did not dampen her desire to visit other countries, however. Poulin worked and taught in seven or eight countries during her career. She had consulting jobs in several additional countries. Poulin grew up in Springvale, graduated from Sanford High School and decided to pursue a career in nursing, specifically in nursing administration and education.After graduating with a diploma in nursing from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, she earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in nursing at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. before heading to Syria.She went to Colorado to earn her Master’s of Science degree in nursing administration and then earned a Doctorate of Education in nursing administration and educational administration at Teachers College at Columbia University.Asked about some the more memorable experiences in her career, Poulin recalled the mid-1950s, when she was coordinator of staff development at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Poulin trained hundreds of medical students and volunteers to operate iron lungs during the largest polio epidemic that had ever been seen. Patients whose lungs were affected by polio were confined to the iron lungs, which enabled a person to breathe after losing normal muscle control. Only the patients’ heads protruded from the sealed chambers.“It was a dangerous situation,” she said, recalling the rows of patients in iron lungs in the hospital ward. “I’ve had a tremendous career,” Poulin said on Tuesday. “It was because I was in nursing and I was part of these organizations,” she said referring to professional nursing organizations like the American Academy of Nursing.Poulin has remained active in the field since her retirement, serving for several years on the board of HomeHealth Visiting Nurses. She currently manages “Books Revisted,” a bookstore in Sanford that supports the local HomeHealth and Hospice program.